Our recent work cleared cherry laurel that had fallen over and begun colonising the solid concrete base of a Nissen Hut. There are many of these still surviving throughout the woods on the main ‘circuit’ of paths framing the wide lawns around the house, but many more, fortunately, that have been entirely removed.
There were three military camps at Kings Weston during WWII, the remains visible on the main paths being part of the British Army’s works. Unlike the later American camps, Sea Mills Camp A and B on the golf course, the British huts were integrated into the historic landscape with sensitivity, preserving historic trees and aligning along the established parkland avenues and paths.
The concrete base of a WWII Nissen hut revealed beneath the recently felled cherry laurel. The entrance is on the right with its own porch structure. Further onto base the brick plinths for stoves can be seen.
With the secrecy originally required in constructing these military establishments it’s difficult to uncover how they were used and who was stationed there. Different services and divisions appear to have come and gone at different stages of the war.
The concrete base gives a little away regarding its use. It had an enclosing porch or blast wall protecting its entrance adjacent to the main path. A few features survive embedded in the floor. These include two brick plinths, one immediately in front of the visitor on entering, and eh other more centrally located beyond it. These, it is assumed, were hearths or the bases of stoves to heat the building. There appears to have been a cinder-block wall separating the entrance of the building from the inside, but much has been erased here. Along each of the long sides of the hut base are regular raised portions of concrete; these are less easy to interpret, but may have been where the steel arched frame sections attached to the base; on top of these would have been laid the familiar corrugated iron sheeting.
A 1946 aerial photo of the Kings Weston estate with Nissen Huts highlighted. The base recently uncovered is marked with an X.
The use of the building remains unknown, but it may well have been a dorm block where beds would have been aligned along either side, the stoves offering much-needed warmth in the winter.
More WWII finds have recently been donated to us by the owners of Wood Lodge, Penpole Lane. Picked out of the ground during gardening work, a large number of shards of crockery have been unearthed over the last few years. Otherwise anonymous white china pieces are given an interesting historic dimension through the printed makers mark identifying their NAAFI use and a series of helpful dates. The Navy, Army, and Air Force Institute provided canteen and entertainment services for troops during WWII. These fragments were, no doubt, discarded after breakages during the war and thrown aside. The dates are spread through just three years between 1942 and 1944, giving a helpful insight on the use of the estate in the years running up to D-Day.
The most interesting fragments of broken crockery carry dates and other marks. The spread is between 1942 and 1944.
As working parties draw to a close on a Saturday afternoon, sometimes we’ve not managed to complete what we might have hoped; bits get left behind as we move on to other parts of the estate. Last month’s volunteer work tackled three such areas at the very heart of the parkland close to The Circle.
We’ve had several working parties along the north edge of the ancient lime Avenue, mainly around 2016-17. These focussed on natural spacing and the chore of removing over-mature laurels. The areas left included some dense and challenging laurels, not reason for us to have neglected them the first time, but enough to keep us occupied for a full working party this time around.
With the cherry laurel removed, the woodland opens out onto the ancient lime avenue beyond.
One area was just to the north of the ancient Lime Avenue, and work here gave us the added opportunity to reinforce the line of the path through trimming snowberry bushes. The second area included a concrete base to a WWII Nissen hut, one that was joined formerly by many others hidden in the trees. The final area bordered the Quarry garden on its eastern end and a forest of mock orange bushes, part of historic planting, to the east. An added challenge in the last area was tidying a fallen tree that had blocked one of the well used paths in this area.
The central of three locations tackled last month, directly on the main path into the woods. The WWII base appears from below the invasive cherry laurel.
Split into three adjacent groups, a good turnout of volunteers saw work progress quickly from east to west. We usually lose people in the afternoons as they get tired or need to get onto other things but still managed to extend the area tackled westwards and begin trimming of laurel regrowth that has begun to regain a foothold above the quarry. By about 2pm we had achieved everything on our agenda and more!
It was interesting to uncover the base of the WWII Nissen Hut and its features, more of that later. The historic area of Mock Orange is now more visible, framed by the less invasive Portuguese laurels we’ve left in place. For the intrepid, there’s the opportunity to try and trace the line of the lost Victorian path that once ran through the back of this area, now freed from the choking embrace of cherry laurels.
The third location, close to the east end of the quarry garden, and looking up-slope towards the main path through the woods.
We were delighted to discover the recent planting of four new lime trees on the estate. These have been planted by the Council tree team and replace some of the lost trees on the historic avenue leading to the house.
One of five replacement trees on the north side of the Ancient avenue, just planted this month.
This avenue was first planted at the turn of the 18th Century by Sir Robert Southwell and his son Edward. The limes are recorded as young trees in two of the many avenues leading from the house in the well-known engraving of the park from about 1710. From then on, they remain a constant feature of the park through history , surviving the de-formalisation of the grounds in the mid-Eighteenth Century. In the last decade several have succumbed to disease.
The new trees, one on the south side of the avenue and three on the north, replicate the historic spacing and repair gaps that have gradually opened up. Along with the new avenue planted by KWAG in 2012, these go a long way to reinstating something of the formality of the original garden layout.
With the old trunk ground out, a replacement lime tree takes its place next to some of the ancient examples. Seen in Kip’s 1710 engraving, the sections of the avenue still with us are ringed in red.
Since 2022, one corner of the Sir John Vabrugh designed Echo has been held aloft only by means of a nylon strap. This was attached during urgent maintenance work when the dilapidated condition of the cornice was first raised as a concern. At the same time, the brambles and other weeds whose roots were penetrating the mortar joints were cleared off. However, it’s taken a considerable time for the Council conservators to return.
The Echo takes on the appearance of a sentry box with the restorers scaffolding and palisades erected.
Last month we had the first reports that the long-promised scaffolding was being erected, along with a palisade protecting it from any abuse or vandalism. The whole structure took on a formidable appearance while contractors worked to re-mortar and repair the stonework. At the same time, some of the overhanging trees that were threatening to knock down the decorative urns were also trimmed back.
Hopefully, perhaps even by now, the work will be finished and the building revealed again to the public.
The Echo in 1927. Philip Napier Miles enjoyed a rustic garden style that saw him allow plants to spring up out of the building’s stonework and steps. The two chairs inside are hollowed out from fallen tree trunks!
October’s Big Bulb Plant at the Iron Bridge has come good with a sensational display this Spring. The heavy work preparing the ground and digging holes through rubble was definitely worth the effort; the visual impact speaks for itself!
A panorama looking down and across the slope towards Shirehampton Road with the bridge on the left. The City boundary marker is now surrounded by flowers.
Both sides of the Iron Bridge looked phenomenal in the Spring sun during March, though flowers are just going over now. We hope that everyone who contributed to the bulb plant will have had the chance to go up, take a look and enjoy the display. It certainly seems to have attracted a lot of attention.
John Loudon McAdam’s iron bridge is now set in a sea of gold on the Kingsweston Hill side
This October we hope to give daffodils a rest. The cultivated blooms are not suitable for many parts of the historic estate and we’re keen to diversify into more native species. As part of the Nature Conservation plan being developed by the Council we hope to agree suitable species and locations that will both ornament the estate and improve its appeal for nature.
The northern approach to the bridge on the Kingsweston Hill side.
The issues of invasive cherry laurel are well known; outcompeting native species, leaching toxins into the soil, and contributing to soil erosion, are just three reasons that many hundreds of hours of volunteer work have been devoted to its removal. Whilst it was once maintained as a decorative landscaping plant, it’s now run wild and is having a seriously detrimental impact on the woodland and the soil.
the cherry laurel regrowth long the mid-18th Century pleasure walk
The last two working parties this year returned to the area on the north-east side of the Echo path, sections of the estate we originally felled laurel in around nine years ago. Whilst much was poisoned by the Council in the wake of our work, the areas closer to Kings Weston house weren’t treated and have more quickly regrown. This was the target of March’s working party.
With a good team of volunteers, we carried on the surgical removal of the laurel whilst leaving the native species that have begun to recolonise the area. Starting from the twin ponds, work progressed downhill throughout the day though, sadly, we didn’t manage to clear as far as the boundary with the house; this was left for a few volunteers to clear away later.
The area behind the two ponds before and after volunteer work. Many native bulbs were planted here in the autumn of 2014, many of which had been hidden.
In the process of opening the area back up many of the saplings and native bulbs planted in the area have been revealed. In February we found the snowdrops lost beneath the laurel growth, and last month the bluebells and miniature daffodils were rediscovered, now better able to reach the sun! Eventually, when the laurel toxins have eventually leached out of the soil and the forest floor has matured further, it will ensure that rainwater run-off from the slope will be more effectively captured.
the view from the pleasure walk along the garden edge looking towards the main Echo path and the lawns beyond.
Sir Robert Southwell when President of the Royal Society.
The Bristol Records Society has recently published its 78th volume, one with some Kings Weston associations. The new publication, edited by Anthony Turner, catalogues the correspondence between William Cole, a gentleman and customs official in Bristol, and Sir Robert Southwell of Kings Weston and his son Edward. The letters exchanged between them largely relate to their mutual interest in natural history and associations with the Royal Society. Sir Robert was elected President of the Society in 1690, a position he was re-elected to five times.
There are few insights into Kings Weston, but a short series of letters are particularly fascinating. They describe the discovery of some crystals Cole had discovered on Sir Robert’s estate and presented them to him and his family as a gifts. The “topaz” stones were made up into five rings, one for Sir Robert and Edward, and the remaining three for each of his surviving daughters.
It’s not clear where the stones were found on the estate, but crystals are not uncommon in the rocks of the Avon Gorge. Known since the Seventeenth Century as “Bristol Diamonds” they became popular as souvenirs. Dug out of iron ore veins, or found in nodules and geodes they were actually quartz crystals. The “topaz” Cole found are likely to be similar stones.
Both the main stone types within the Kings Weston parkland, limestone and Dolomitic Conglomerate, could have produced these gems. KWAG has come across them before now during excavations for steps, or mixed in topsoil, but none appear to have the same clarity encountered by Cole. What became of the Southwell’s rings is, sadly, unknown.
Quartz crystals of a very flawed quality found during KWAG work in Penpole Woods. Perhaps the Kings Weston topaz stones were finer quality than these.
The following excerpts are taken from the recent publication and give extra colour and depth to the story:
William Cole to Edward Southwell, 5 May 1694
“Honoured & deare Sir I have forborne to write to you since your last of the 27 March for that I was desirous in my next to make good my promise of sending you some of the Topaz stones of Kings Weston which I have att length and without much difficulty procured and now send you…
Now concerning the stones it may not be impertinent to give you a particular account that about 10 or 12 yeares since I procured many of them from Kings Weston and among them all there were not above 5 or 6 which were very good, and these I parted from to gratifie the earnest desires of some particular freinds not keeping anie for myselfe (being a stone I always fancied above others) presuming to have gotten more but never could till your last time being heere and when I had gotten severall hundred of them I caused the Jeweller to examine them and he pict out 22 of them (not finding any more that he thought good) which he carried with him to London to be cutt there but 12 of which found fitt to be cutt and returned the rest to me as defective, of which I chose out the 5 best and biggest to be set in Rings which are now sent by [….)
I did as well as I could by conjecture, direct the Jeweller in sizeing the ringes, 1st that for Sir Robert to be made a small size too big for me i.e. no 1. The next No 2 for yourselfe a size bigger then that supposing your finger to be somewhat bigger then your fathers, and N° 3 for Mm H[elena] & M E[lizabeth] neere of the same bignesse and N° 5 the least for M K[atherine]. I presumed the stones would have beene bigger, but he that cutt them assured me that when the topps of those which are crystalline the rough side & both are ground of The Topaz in the midle would be noe bigger soe as to be cleane and pure.
These 5 taken out of the aforesaid 12, the remaining 7 are not soe big nor indeed soe good as these. He further assured me that in grinding them he found them harder than the common Topazes, tho not as the Orientall hard Topazes which are neer in value to dyamonds, which are allsoe called yellow dyamonds. The foile under the stones is the common looking glasse foile. It hath been my designe some years past to procure some of theise stones to the end they may be worn not onely, rudely cut enough as they are, but as such found in S’ Roberts owne mannor. If these several tokens of gratitude find acceptance with the same [illegible interlined word replacing”
An example of Bristol Diamonds from the Gorge area, now in the M-Shed museum
Sir Robert Southwell to William Cole, London 2 July 1694
“Wee lately had the effects of your favour in five Rings you told us indeed of Topazes of our own Growth but I little thought you would have improved them as you have done. But you have at the same time improved our value of Kings Weston. for we newe not before we were so rich. Mr Woodward a great Judge of these things admires them very much, and hath obleiged me to furnish his collection with 2 or 3 Rust ones when I gett downe.”
William Cole to Edward Southwell, 23 aug 1694
“Besides these thinges I was requested by him in his letter & […] to imploy the stone digger to find some of the rough topaz stones for Mr Woodward which I proposed to doe this weeke, but before that spoken with him he came this morning to offer some other sorts of stones to me; and told me that he was yesterday att Kings Weston digging in Sir Robert’s land and forbidden by one of his servants. I examined him what answer he made him, and he told me that he said I had procured leave for him from Sir Robert but I never spake with him nor sent to him since I went into Wilts in May last. He offers to ingage not dig in any place to the damage of the Land and to suffer punishment if he doth not levell the holes where he shall dig for stones which he sayth lye neere the surface if your father think fitt that he shew the places where he supposeth to find them to one of his servants that he may be first satisfied that it may be don without damage to the land, he hath one large peec of a hollow rock of about half hundred within which are found good stones which I presume will be pleasing to Mr Woodward tho not of the right Topaz colour which if your father please to accept it I shall ingage the stone digger to present to your father being found in the same Mannour and to search for such as are of the true colour.”
the Kings Weston estate in about 1710. It’s not known where in the grounds the crystals were discovered.
The War Memorial after the inauguration crowds had receded on 4th September 1921.
A new photo has come to us that will be of interest to many of you. The unveiling of Shirehampton’s War Memorial was held on Sunday 4th September 1921. Designed in the manner of a medieval wayside cross, it was given a dignified position at the top of Park Hill. The site at the corner of Shirehampton Road and Penpole Lane was once more prominent than it is today, and on the edge of the landscaped parkland nestled between long avenues of trees.
The land had been donated by Kings Weston’s owner, Philip Napier Miles, who also chaired the committee tasked with the memorial’s erection. It was his estate architect, Ernest Newton, who had been given the task of designing a fitting memorial to carry the 57 names of local men lost in the war.
The newly discovered photo records the scene of the unveiling from the Shirehampton Park side of the road, the cross surrounded by sun-bathed spectators keen to mark their respects. Ropes that may have released some sort of curtain still hang from the crosshead. It’s also a tantalising glimpse of the timber building set up over the new reservoir built by the Bristol Water Co.
A bill was set before parliament in June 1920 to enable the company to build several new works, including a new reservoir to serve the growing Bristol suburbs of Shirehampton and Avonmouth. As originally planned, this was to be in a field west of the cricket club, but at some point the site changed to a spot on the north side of Penpole Lane. Sadly, this required part of the landscaped grounds to be compulsorily purchased for the deep tank and the incongruous-looking large sheds protecting the water from contamination. The Bill was passed in May 1921, so it looks as though work was quick to start, or had already begun before the new facility was photographed in September that year. It’s not clear what Napier Miles thought of this intrusion into the landscape, but challenging a Government Bill would have been a financially challenging prospect.
The reservoir survives today, emptied, and converted as the Karakal works, albeit now with a steel shed covering. Strange as it seems, the reservoir is now over a century old!
The newly discovered view with the twin roofs of the newly-built reservoir seen beyond the crowds. The War Memorial stands proud in the centre.
It’s always lovely to meet new volunteers, and we welcome those who turned up last month to lend a hand with keeping on top of the cherry laurel regrowth close to the Echo. It’s been eleven years since we began cutting this invasive shrub away in this area. Thanks to the Council following-through with poisoning of the stumps the growth has been seriously retarded, but eleven years is still a long time to go without any re-cutting.
Looking downhill towards Kings Weston house, an area first cleared in 2014.
Some areas had started to become quite overgrown with laurel, and there was a need for care in cutting them out. Dozens of saplings, planted by KWAG not long after we cleared, survive and have begun to thrive. It was important that none were accidentally lopped off in the process!
The target was to clear everything between the Echo and the two ponds. Most of this was achieved, but we fell slightly short for want of volunteers to help in the afternoon. Nevertheless, only small areas immediately around the pond remain to be done this month.
Looking up the slope with The Echo revealed in the distance after laurel clearance work.
One unforeseen bonus of our work has been the revealing of some of the native bulbs planted in the area as part of one of our early big Bulb Plants. Groups of Snowdrops and native daffodils were discovered cowering under the cherry laurel and bramble, hopefully now more able to survive.
Another task performed on the day was the pushing back of the cherry laurel margins alongside the boundary wall and road. We’re keen not to lose all of these and expose walkers to the traffic, but there was a good deal to cut that had begun to grow back across the path again. Unfortunately, we have an incomplete set of before-and-after photos, but we’re returning this weekend, so we’ll provide more of an update next month.
The view looking back towards the house looking down the pleasure walk leading behind the woods from the Echo.
In error, we ordered far more daffodil bulbs than we anticipated ahead of our annual Big Bulb Plant in October. Instead of 7000, volunteers who came along had the challenge of getting 9000 bulbs into the ground. Matters were exasperated too, by the quality of the ground around the historic Kings Weston iron bridge where we’d committed to plant. Earlier this year, with the support of the Save the Green Iron Bridge group and Janet Poole., donations were collected as part of the celebrations around the reopening of the bridge, and it seemed fit to decorate either side of the structure with these flowers. When it came to it, this was easier said than done.
Work begins on the east side of the bridge with plenty of family involvement.
The event began at 10am and gradually volunteer numbers grew throughout the morning. Those tasked with digging holes for the bulbs immediately found the ground to be poor, filled, as it was, with rubble sat there from decades before. Both sides of the bridge were heavy going, large lumps of building stone, brick, tarmac and all manner of material dumped there for inexplicable reasons and buried beneath the turf. This considerably slowed progress throughout the day, particularly on the west side. We still don’t know where all this material came from, but it could have been demolition rubble from the WWII use of the estate or some well-meaning council plan to level the ground around the bridge.
By lunchtime, opportunities to plant on the eastern side were exhausted, and everyone moved over to support the beleaguered team on the west. Aside from the challenge of the ground conditions, the day was perfect for the task, breaking out in sunshine by the end of the day, helpfully illuminating the slopes of Shirehampton Park as it sank towards the horizon. Fine tilth of soil left by digging bramble roots out sped progress as the afternoon progressed, and work was completed with the trimming of some self-seeded saplings that might overshadow the newly planted area.
A big gang of volunteers moves gradually along the grass from the bridge. The western side of the iron bridge proved the biggest challenge to dig.
We’re immensely grateful for everyone who came along throughout the day, no matter how long they were able to help for. We hope that the daffodils will now find their own path and root well in the troublesome ground before next spring and give us a fine display. Whilst we didn’t manage to get the full compliment in the ground, 6500 bulbs made it in. The surplus will form the basis of this month’s working party and go in along Shirehampton Road.
